A PARISIENNE CARD & A CHRISTMAS EVENT...

Yolo! Always wanted to say that, LOL!

As you know, this month is Challenge-less. Funny, I've actually been

doing lots of cards. Maybe I'm afraid to start a LO - it might open

the floodgates & I'll want to do a challenge!

This card is Paris inspired for a future birthday for a

member of my family who is a

Francophile like me!

Naturally, I pulled out all the Paris bits I could find. It seemed to lean

towards vintage - so I went shabby chic with some stitching & lace!

The 'dream' stamp above is from Rubber Dance Art Stamps.

It's a beauty!. You can see some washi tape behind the lace,

& I've used a 'Stampin' Up' little Paris seal stamp.

I have to thank a pile of scrappy mates for contributing Stuff to this card!

My Mum gave me the Eiffel tower 'button', then Lizzy C, Mary B  &

Sanna L all contributed. Thanks girls;)
Meanwhile, look what JENNIFER GRACE is up to:

Her last event was really inspiring...so hope
you can make it along to this one!
Cheers ~ Lizzy ♥♥♥

Me On Monday/Tuesday...

Yup, this 'no challenge' month has certainly left me with time 

to join in fun things like Sian's 'Me On Monday' idea!!

It's quite fun wandering around the web, looking at what 

peeps have been getting up to!

Me? We went into Sydney to the ISB concert.

That would be the International Staff Band of the Salvation Army,

on tour from the UK.

Normally it takes us just over and hour. But the train line was

having maintenance. So it was by car to the outskirts, then train the

rest. Took over 2 hours each way.

Which meant we got home well after midnight.

Fortunately the rugby started at 2am.

So we stayed up! 

Tom was pleased 'his' All Blacks just pipped South Africa.

Great game!

Consequently, Sunday was a VERY rest filled day.

Recovering from late nights post-50s takes a bit!

I had to share this happy snap from my Friday's looking after

Lucas day. Ollie came to pick up his big bro with his Mum.

2 sweet boys!

I also had a play with my new fuse tool. Saw a video about using

steel cookie cutters to create Chrissy shapes.

Sorry - no idea WHO

to attribute this to.... you know how you just wander around

YouTube....

but I thought it was a neat idea.

It worked OK-ish, but of course, was much more difficult than

it looked on the video!

And I stitched on a DT LO I'm creating for 2016. Yeah, I like to be organised!!

So are some of my Team Bosses!!! You KNOW I'm not myself if

I'm stitching! This is all I can show atm ;)

Who KNEW hessian was so easy to colour with spray mists??!!!!!

That's it from me:)

Blessings to one and all ~ Lizzy ♥♥♥

Using DUSTY ATTIC NEW STENCILS for your PROJECT LIFE:

Hi there! Today I thought I'd switch things around.
 Fellow DUSTY ATTIC DT member,
Melinda Sweetman is waaay inspiring with her PL,

so I decided to give it a go, too:)

Basically this is an altruistic post. I recently received my Dusty Attic box of 

AMAZING goodies. Including their new STENCILS & TEXTURE PASTE.

 I decided a really good way of 'playing' was with some PL!

So, here's a bit of a run-down of what I did:

Firstly, I decided on my DUSTY ATTIC PAINT colours, based on the pages I'd already

completed for August:

 Then I got out my new stencils, with some white cardstock

& away I went, mixing the fabulously SMOOTH texture paste

with the paint:

Next I whacked it over the stencils. Of course, I had lots of paint,

so I then pushed the 'painty' stencil onto some other card stock

for a reverse image:

I was really pleased with how they turned out:

Lovely, LOVELY stencils!!!!

Middle L is CIRCUIT, middle R is  FLOWER BURST

Bottom L is FEATHERS & ARROWS 

& bottom R is CONFETTI

So, that was 'stage one'. Then I [lazily] used my Big Shot to cut some of these

into 6x4 PL cards:

The FLOWER BURST STENCIL I fussy cut for my date card:

Here is how it looked finished:

One of the reverse stencil cards was used to

journal over. I figured using vellum on top would work:

These precision pens work really well for writing on vellum.

I used a Pitt Artists big pen on all the Dusty Attic chippy that I used, including this

'remember' from the 

MINI WORDS #1 PACK.

I sewed the vellum on, through the chippy. Here's the journaling card finished:

I used the other 'reverse' stencil patterns for backing my photo cards.

Here's a closie:

Blessed [ WORD PACK #21] indeed to live close by my son
and Grand Boys!

Another card I utilised below middle, has an arrow printed on it;
I simply added

some more from the 

Arrow Borders #3 pack:

Loving the CONFETTI stencil beneath it!

Top left is the LOVELY CIRCUIT stencil. I added

some black outline for detail.

Above on my Mum's photo I've used a round 'be happy' sentiment from the 

WORD DISKS #1 PACK.

So, there you have it. Lots of fun using the NEW and VERY reasonably priced

Dusty Attic STENCILS and TEXTURE PASTE in some fun ways!

Thanks so much for reading this ~ I hope it gives you some ideas & inspiration.

Lizzy xo

Photo Developers online in Australia...

...yup! A parochial post today. I asked on Facebook, a while ago,

for the different online sites peeps in Aussie used to get their photos

developed.

It opened a bit of a can of worms. I got LOTS of recommendations &

ideas. But opted to go with the most popular. 

 Top L-Harvey N; Top R-K-Mart; Bottom L-Snap Fish; Bottom R-Nu Shots.

Why was I even asking? Because printing my own snaps at home has become

way too expensive - the ink & photo paper. And I've been disappointed with

their quality.

 We have a local K-Mart, with 10c a print cost, so I thought this would be

 the sensible option. But when I got my 30 odd photos back, I was really

 disappointed. You could spit through the paper. They were fuzzy & pixilated.

Fatmumslim has, recently, done a post on developing too.

I had a peek HERE. She includes OS sites. But she 'wrote off'

Harvey Norman.

HOWEVER, a LOT of you guys use them - so

I ended up choosing them, NuShots & Snap Fish for this experiment.

 Top L-Snap Fish; top R-K Mart; Bottom L-Harvey Norman; Bottom R-Nu Shots.

I think in the end I'll go with NUSHOTS. It's not JUST about picture quality!
Positives:
Simple to navigate system.
The ability to choose a different size as you are editing your print.
The ability to choose matte or gloss individually.
The ability to choose a frame as you place your order.
They show the picture quality - with a percentage, which is great.
Sometimes phone photos are too pixilated, but you don't know 'til you've printed them.
This saves that happening!
Excellent auto correct tool.
THE best quality photo paper.
Quality of the photos was, overall, about an 8, I reckon.
Negatives:
Took 5 days to arrive.

Postage is $5-00. More expensive than the others.
Prints cost 19c each, regardless of 4x4 or 6x4. Also the most expensive.

Top L- Harvey Norman; top R-K Mart; Bottom L-Snap Fish; bottom R-Nu Shots.

HARVEY NORMAN  This came a close 2nd...
Positives:
Speedy service.
Great auto correct tool.
Probably the best quality, just pipping Nu Shots. I'd give them an 8.5
Choice of matte or glossy.
Negatives:
I found the system difficult to navigate.
You are supposed to get free prints [7x5"] when you join, but it was all too hard,
so I ended up not even bothering.
I wanted some prints 6x4, but trying to figure out how to change some sizes
was also too hard. I got a bit frustrated with the whole thing and gave up.
So I ended up with all 4x4 photos.

Postage $2-95
Prints cost 15c.

 Top L-K Mart; top R-Harvey Norman; Bottom L-Snap Fish; bottom R-Nu Shots.

SNAP FISH
Positives:
Good quality paper.
Choice of matte or glossy.
50 FREE prints on joining. So I only paid for
postage for my photos. VERY good deal.
And this was done by the system, so it was easy peasy.
Negatives:
Last to arrive! Took 6 days.
No 4x4 choice - then after I'd paid a box came up to
say some photos would be better quality if printed smaller so I
said yes. But when I got them back, they were cropped really
randomly. Not happy about that!
The editing tool was really painful. Difficult and fiddly.
So I didn't bother. The quality didn't suffer too much,
but overall I'd give this a 7.5 quality-wise.

Postage: $2-95
Prints cost 15c

Top-K Mart; Bottom- NuShots. I've tried to get close up so you can actually SEE the difference better.

Some of the K Mart photos look OK from the distance, but they're actually

over processed and 'fuzzy' up close.

Other developers peeps mentioned include:

OFFICEWORKS

EASTMON DIGITAL

BIG W

ORIGRAMI

B&W PHOTOGRAPHICS

CAMERA HOUSE

 Anyway, this is all just my opinion based on the photos I sent off to get

processed..... hope this is helpful in one way or another to you Aussies out there:)

Cheers, Lizzy ♥♥♥

PS: I just sorted the photos out that I wanted to keep. Then counted which ones

came from which company. Some I kept 2 of,

as I sometimes scrap 2 of the same...

So, I ended up with this:

K Mart - 4 photos

Snap Fish - 8 photos

NuShots - 11 photos

Harvey Norman - 17 photos

Interesting, I thought.... I might have to try again at 

Harvey Norman's system & see if I can 'work' it better!!

But I still like NuShots paper & system best!!!

Me on Monday/Tuesday....

..I get a bit confused, cos Sian, who is the 'it' girl for this ME ON MONDAY idea,

 is in Ireland.

And we're ahead of them.... 

ANYWAYS....I had a very quiet weekend, doing LOTS of scrapping!

I managed to do 2 pocket letters.I can't show them cos they haven't

arrived at their destination, but here's a couple of sneak peeks:

This one is completely different to the one below. I do like to swing

with my styles!

Then I made 4 LOs. For my Guest Designing gig

over at Lasting Memories - but that's not 'til December.

This came at the the right time, as being my 'challenge free month', I was itching
to do SOMETHING!!!

Of course, needed a nice big cuppa to keep me going;)

And of course, there was rugby on & an awful early start for the DH.

But not me! Is this where I mention Aussie won & the Irish lost?
Probably not good news for some...
I dived into my fave book series at the mo:

And we made some YUMMY pasta for lunch - the weather is really nice

at the moment, so it's outside eating. LOVE that!

We watched a host of Putt Putt boats go past,
& realised it was the Boat Festival. Aaah well.
Missed that one!

 So there you have it! A quiet but really, really fun weekend.

Hope yours was good, wherever you are:)

Blessings ~ Lizzy ♥♥♥

OFF THE RAILS - OCTOBER CHALLENGE:

Good day my scrappy friends! It's the mid month reveal
for OFF THE RAILS current challenge:

I really ENJOYED creating this page of my ex-sis-in-law's dog.
Now THAT was a mouthful, eh?

This is the story of how they bought a teddy bear for their girl dog,
who was pining with the loss of her doggy mate

There's a bit of pathos there, & I thought it fitted the saying
on the mood board.

AND it's THE cutest doggy photo ever:

A close up of the bits at the top of the photo.
Those little dog clips are a fave!!!

The arrow on the far left is an epoxy dot that I've created
using a stamp & circle punch:

  Because this is for my SIL, I've created a journaling tab for her to fill in,
tucked behind the photo:

 And the front:

And one more close up:

Soooo......does our OFF THE RAILS Mood Board 'speak' to you?
Would LOVE to see what you come up with!

And our fabulous sponsor for the month is LAWN FAWN!

Thanks for looking & happy scrapping ~ Lizzy ♥♥♥

Me On Monday. Well, Tuesday over here;)

...and just as well, cos despite the Challenge Free month. seems I still have

lots to post. Dunno how that happens!

ANYWAYS, I love reading SIAN'S 'Me on Monday' posts - but rarely

get a chance to join in. Til today.

And it was SUCH an exciting weekend.

Not.

But - that's life - not always filled with Stuff.

Saturday Wally & I took a walk down to the shops.

Past the GLORIOUS bottlebrush trees lining our street.

Past the kids on the oval.Cricket has started!

Don't you ADORE that particular 'thwack' that the cricket

ball makes when connecting to the bat?

AND I had a HUGE massive clothes clean out.

DH: "What's wrong with all those clothes? Why are you tossing them out?

I suppose this means you can say you haven't got any and need to buy

new ones."

I didn't have to say a word. Just grinned!

We also walked down to our little monthly

market. Bought some plants.

Aussie natives that will hopefully survive the 

hot northerly aspect and the dry, sandy soil. Sigh.

AND lastly,
I made some mini envelopes & gave some Typo tags

a new purpose.
Christmas is a-coming!!

Thanks for taking a peek.

Blessings ~ Lizzy ♥♥♥

NO CHALLENGES for me MONTH...

Some of you already know...some will be wondering where my 'usual' challenge entries are.

The long and the short of it is some scrappy mates reckoned I could NOT

last a month without entering a challenge.

 [Pocket Letter sent to Lizzie Crust]

Being an ARIES...stubborn, obstinate, lover of control....well,

I couldn't resist challenging myself to do none.  At all!

I must say, it's a bit hard. So I've had to find Other Stuff

to fiddle with. 

 [pocket letter for swap group]

And funnily enough, the scrap room is getting a bit of a clean up, too.

So, today I thought I'd share with you my latest craze.

POCKET LETTERS!

 Basically, they are football swap plastic sleeves - which happen to

be the same size as ATCs [2.5 x 3.5"]. There are 3 rows of 3.

You fill them with pretty stuff, including, most importantly, a letter.

 Sort of a crafty pen pal swap with a few goodies thrown in for 

good measure.

Janette Lane began them - if you're interested, her blog is HERE.

There are a couple of Aussie swap groups - I decided they'd be too

expensive to send overseas....so I've joined the 

Aussie Pocket Letter Pals Facebook page.

 And I've done a few swaps, and gotten some back. 

And it's FUN! A great way to use up all those scraps, too:)

And share the 'love'!!

If you're a bit of a writer as well as a crafter, this is a bit of a 'fix'

for both!!!

Below is an example of what you can pop on the back. 

This was my first one; since then I've written longer letters &

actually folded them away:

 

One more:

And lastly, sometimes you can join in themed swaps.

Here is a Wizard of Oz one, which I swapped

with another girl!

 So, that's ONE thing I've been spending my time at.

I'll be back later in the month with another....

Cheers, & happy scrapping [& challenge entering!!] to you all

Lizzy ♥♥♥